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Suspect in 8 Chicago suburb murders was related to most of the victims

Police said there is no evidence to provide a clear motive, and the relation of each victim to the suspect is still being determined.
Posted at 12:27 PM, Jan 23, 2024

An active manhunt for the "armed and dangerous" suspect wanted for shooting and killing eight people, who authorities said were mostly his relatives, in the Chicago suburbs has come to an end. 

Police in Joliet, Illinois, said 23-year-old Romeo Nance was located by U.S. Marshals nearly 1,300 miles away Monday night in Texas. 

In a Facebook post, the Medina County Sheriff's Office in Texas said the agency received a call around 8:30 p.m. Monday alerting them that the suspect wanted for the Chicago-area killings was headed into the county via Interstate 35. 

Texas law enforcement officials from several agencies located Nance at a gas station and said during a standoff the suspect turned a gun on himself and is now dead. 

This comes after days of anguish and fear for people living in the Chicago suburbs. 

Communities were on edge following the gruesome murders of eight people at three different locations. Police said there was no clear motive for the killing spree at this time. 

Officials said one victim was found Sunday at a home in Will County. 

Seven others were found dead Monday afternoon at two different homes on the same block in Joliet, roughly six miles from the first scene. 

Police did not release the victims’ names and said they had not yet determined their exact relationships to Nance, but the victims included: a 14-year-old girl, a 16-year-old girl, a 20-year-old woman, a 38-year-old woman, a 38-year-old man, a 47-year-old woman, a 35-year-old man and a 28-year-old man.

On Monday, the Will County Sheriff's Office posted photos of the suspect's Toyota Camry, linking the car to the crime scenes in Joliet. 

"Early on in this investigation, we were able to identify a suspect vehicle to our homicide, which coincided with an earlier shooting that happened in Joliet approximately 10 minutes prior to our report," said Will County chief deputy Dan Jungles. 

Police had said Nance was also suspected of wounding a ninth person Sunday in a shooting in Joliet. That person is expected to be OK. 

Information has also come out about the now-deceased suspect's criminal past. 

The Chicago Tribune reported that Nance was awaiting trial from a road rage incident last year, in which he allegedly shot a woman several times.